He's a Keeper

Chapter 1 - A New World

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! My alarm woke me up from a restless night of sleep. I hit the off button and closed my eyes for another moment to savor the last few moments of calm. I broke free of the warm embrace of my blankets as I rolled out of bed. I picked up the outfit I had laid out the night before. I get really stressed when I can't figure out what to wear. I had Strength Training class today, so I pulled on a pair of sweatpants over my basketball shorts. I grabbed my green Levi's jeans shirt that I bought recently, it went perfectly with a jean jacket and I threw and extra shirt in my backpack to change into for class. 

I ate a quick bowl of cereal before I brushed my teeth and finished packing my backpack. I took the bus to school so I slipped out the front door to wait at the pickup location. The air, in the middle of August was cool, but not cold. I inhaled breathing in the smells I could only describe as "morning air." Something about it just calmed me. I thought about the fight my parents had with me last night. I decided to come out to them as genderfluid. I explained to them that sometimes I was a girl and sometimes I was a guy. Some days I was neither or both. I can't even explain it well. It's just whatever feels right and it's different for every person. I had informed my teachers and classmates earlier this year, but my parents hadn't known yet. Until I told them last night. I was expecting a loving response from them. No, all I heard before I went to bed was how I was broken. They had planned my life out for me and are now mad that I'm not following the script. 

I looked up from my watch, which read 6:17 am as I heard the bus coming around the corner of the road, I had an good knack for identifying sounds once I had heard them enough. Sure enough, it came to a stop in front of me. I put my headphones on as I boarded. I didn't like to socialize with people this early in the morning. I'm normally one of the first people on the bus in the morning and last off in the afternoon, but I noticed an extra person than the number that is usually on the bus. He looked familiar. But with short brown hair as the only feature I noticed in the dark, he could have been anyone. I sat down in a seat close to the front and put the thought out of my mind as I scrolled though Spotify. I hit shuffle on my "Liked Songs" playlist and looked out the window as "Kiwi" by Harry Styles played.  

My first class of the day was English. We were just working on some grammar worksheets when the bell rang to signal the end of class. I quickly walked across the football field to get to my next class, strength training. It wasn't convenient to get to the classroom. The school has a 10 foot fence around the entire building but the weight room was outside the fence. Not the best for security, but then again when did the public school system care much past the success of the football team. I waited for the coach to unlock the gate with my peer, Alec. He was nice to me, but we never talked outside of class. As more of the class showed up, the coach unlocked the gate and ushered us inside. It was only then I realized that the same kid from my bus was present in the group of my classmates. 

Coach Baker started taking attendance as we got changed for class. I took another look at the new student as Coach introduced him. 

"Listen up," Coach Baker began, "You've got a new classmate." All heads turned to look at him. The kid stepped forward, I would have guessed he was 15 or 16, about my age. 

"Hi, I'm-" he started, 

"Oliver" I said in a hushed whisper. No one should have been able to hear me, but he looked at me strangely.

"-Oliver Wood," he finished. I was convinced he had heard me, though it should have been impossible. I remembered who he reminded me of. He was the spitting image of Oliver Wood, a character in Harry Potter, my favorite book series. How the hell is that possible? He's a fictional character. I had to be seeing things, yet I had a gut feeling that this was real.

"Football guys, you have your workout. "Sa- I mean Blaise, I'm going to put Oliver with you today, can you teach him the intro workout." the coach said, breaking my train of thought. "Oliver, he will help you today." Coach Baker directed his last sentence to Oliver.

"Yeah," I said, even though it wasn't really a question, I was the only one not on the football team, so it makes sense that I would be partnered with Oliver. "And coach, today it's Blaze, with she/her pronouns." Sometimes my teachers and friends would slip up and call me my deadname. I tried not to let it bother me, but I always corrected them.

He nodded and continued to instruct the football guys. I turned to face Oliver. My mind finally back on the strange circumstances that I was experiencing. Now seeing him in person, he was different from the portrayal of him on TV. While his physical appearance was what I recognized, the memory of seeing the movies seemed of be fading from my mind. I couldn't remember which movies he was in, was it the first and the second Harry Potter or the third as well? Everything was so confusing. 

"Umm, are we going to get to the workout? Or..." Oliver asked me. I hadn't realized how long I had been thinking.

"Yes um, this way." I replied. I led him to the racks of dumbells. "So we do 10 dumbell rows with each arm. Then we head over to the pull-up bar and do 5 pull-ups." I continued explaining the workout that we had to do. I thought about what I knew about him. I realized that he didn't have the strong Scottish accent that his character had in the movies. I knew that some people could do a really good american accent, unlike when Americans try to do any other accent. Maybe that was it. 

"Hey, I have to tell you something," Oliver said suddenly. "You might think that I'm crazy, but it's the truth." I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say. 

"Okay, I'll do my best to understand," I replied. 

"I'm not from around here," he said. I decided that I would go out on a limb and guess. 

"I know, you're from Europe, Scotland more specifically." I whispered. The expression on his face was shock. 

He stammered, "She said you might know who I am, but I didn't think she was serious." Who was the "she" he was talking about?

"Who told you that?" I asked Oliver.

He paused before answering, "Professor McGonagall, she's a teacher at my school. But something tells me that you already know who she is too."

"Yeah, I don't know how this is possible, but you are in a book and movie series." I said. I looked around the room, everyone was occupied with their workouts. I quickly walked over to my backpack and pulled out a copy of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone. I opened the book at random, but the pages were blank. I flipped through the entire book, but there wasn't a page with ink on it. "No, this is too crazy." I whispered. 

"It's blank, I'm guessing this was your proof." Oliver said from behind me. I turned around.

"Yes, I don't know why there's no words or why my memory of the series is going blank." I replied. 

"It's alright. You couldn't have known about me without prior knowledge." He said comfortingly. The question I still had in my mind, was why he was here. 

"No offense, but why are you here?" I asked him. I was both worried and excited to learn the answer. 

He looked around the room then at me, "I'm here to tell you that I'm from a magical school in Britain. You know all about it from the unsurprised look on your face," he paused before continuing. "Professor McGonagall sent me here to get you. We're not sure why you didn't show up on Ilvermorny's magical radius. But, you came up on ours. The problem is, you are now 16. Which means you've missed 5 years of schooling. McGonagall knows you aren't safe here, so we're going to Britain."

My head was spinning. I wasn't safe here? I'm going to Britain? "Wait, what you're saying is..." I asked, my voice fading.

"You're a witch Blaze," He answered my question.